Philosophy & Approach

School Philosophy

General Approach to Learning:
Play-Based

From the Director:

The World at Their Fingertips Education for Bright Horizons, based on a rich tradition of early childhood education theory and practice empowers children to become confident, successful, lifelong learners and secure, caring people. We help children see the world as an invitation to learn, grow, and live fully by seeing possibilities within their reach. We help children approach school and academics with skills, confidence and a drive to succeed.
Children are active learners who learn best from activities they plan and carry out themselves. However, teachers at Bright Horizons Family Solutions provide the environment and experiences from which children learn. Based on observed skills and emerging ideas of the group and individuals, they create experiences appropriate for each child, ask stimulating questions, provide challenges, and help children find new answers and new opportunities. Teaching also involves helping children achieve the confidence and self-discipline to increasingly develop more sophisticated social and intellectual skills and knowledge that will prepare them for success in school.

Curriculum & Teaching Approach

Learning Philosophy & Tools

Play- based

mostly teacher led

not formally in curriculum

conducive environment

Language

Oral language

Nursery rhymes, poems, songs

Storybook reading

Emerging literacy skills

Cognitive development

Math & number sense

Time & space

Sci. reasoning/physical world

Music

Visual arts

Physical activity

Other subjects taught

Some Bright Horizons centers offer foreign language.

From the Director:

The World at Their Fingertips Program for Learning is Bright Horizonsâ€™ comprehensive early education curriculum. World is designed to prepare children for success in school and life, and encourage them to approach life as an invitation to learn. This is achieved through both an approach and a sensibility that infuses interactions and the planned environment. Individual elements such as Language Works, Math Counts, Science Rocks, Projections, Our World, ArtSmart and The World at Home are integrated into each of the developmental programs' environments and into the "sensibility of the center," rather than isolated in artificial, discrete components. Each Bright Horizons Center is encouraged to extend and enhance The World at Their Fingertips, staying within the overall approach. For example, aspects of the approach of Reggio Emilia, Montessori, or Waldorf Schools can be used to add richness to The World at Their Fingertips at a Bright Horizons Center. Centers are expected to take advantage of the world outside their center and to be part of their communities, taking advantage of local resources and culture.
For more information on The World at Their Fingertips Program for Learning, as well as our Growing Readers and Growing Scientists initiatives, please visit www.brighthorizons.com/growing.

Quality of Teaching

Individualized Teaching: From the Director

Bright Horizons Family Solutions recognizes the unique strengths of each child and uses those strengths to help the child meet high expectations. We are committed to helping children develop the information-gathering and problem-solving tools to succeed in school. Children will learn to use their minds, books, computers, scientific instruments, and the people in their lives to seize the opportunities that life presents. Through observation and interaction, teachers look at each child individually and work closely with his parents to make appropriate developmental decisions. Teachers will also work with parents to locate outside resources if necessary and work with those resources to ensure the child is getting everything he needs to be a successful learner.

Day in the Life

General School Mission

The Bright Horizons Family Solutions mission is to provide innovative programs that help children, families, and employers work together to be their very best. We are committed to providing the highest-quality child care, early education, and work/life solutions in the world.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions centers approach each and every day with goals to promote a lifelong love of learning:
Preparation for Success in Life
- Approaching life as an invitation to learn
- Becoming a confident and competent lifelong learner
- Becoming a confident and competent user of technology
- Developing emotional intelligence: personal power and social skills
Preparation for Academic Excellence
- Developing the social and cognitive skills necessary for school success
- Achieving excellence in language and literacy
- Developing an engaged, reflective, inquisitive mind and appreciation of science
- Achieving excellence in logical/mathematical understanding A Rich and Rewarding Childhood
- Happy days
- Wonderful relationships
- A World of experience
We aspire to do this so successfully that we make a difference in the lives of children and families and in the communities where we live and work.

Home-School Connection

Home-School Connection: From the Director

Bright Horizons offers a variety of school-home connection materials. One is www.brighthorizons.com/growing. This is a site where parents can find resources, information, and programs designed to help their child grow, learn, and discover. From cultivating a love of books or channeling their childâ€™s natural curiosity into scientific inquiry to discovering valuable parenting tips and ideas, this parent resource Web site was designed with parents and families in mind.
Our program for learning, The World at Their Fingertips, also has a World at Home component. The World at Home provides a database of activities for infants through school age children to do at home with parents, many that naturally flow from everyday life. The activities cover the curriculum spectrum - language, science, math, social skills and so on. Parents can draw off of this database to extend what is happening in the classrooms. They may also submit activity ideas to share with all of our faculty and families around the world.
Bright Horizons has also teamed up with The Learning Network to offer Bright Horizons EarlyLearner, a wonderful online child development support service. Bright Horizons EarlyLearner allows parents and teachers to track each child's development and create an online portfolio. A portfolio includes parent-teacher Child Observation Records that map the child's growth and a journal to record experiences and insights from parents and teachers. Bright Horizons EarlyLearner also includes:
â€¢ information about development
â€¢ classroom activities targeted to the child's development
â€¢ tips for parents and teachers
â€¢ opportunities to question experts
Bright Horizons EarlyLearner is integrated into The World at Their Fingertips approach to parent conferences and tracking development: a partnership approach designed to create a shared point of view on the child's development and goals for success.
Children in our infant and toddler programs also receive daily notes sharing some of the dayâ€™s highpoints as well as information on meals and diaper changes. Each child (infant through preschool) also receives a journal chronicling their time at the center. Journals are an interactive communication tool for parents and teachers to record highlights of both center and home life.
Bright Horizons has an open door policy so parents can visit any time. Annual parent teacher conferences are also conducted for each child in the center.

Separation

Handling Separation: From the Director

Ensuring and facilitating a smooth and successful transition from Bright Horizons' preschool or kindergarten programs to public or private schools is a major goal and responsibility for all of our programs. Our responsibility is not only to provide the best educational experience that we believe is possible, but to prepare children for the schools they will be attending, many of which may be more structured and less developmentally appropriate than we might wish.
Our READY for SCHOOL program includes a set of materials designed to assist our centers in helping children succeed in school and life. These materials combine and highlight many of the excellent aspects of programs already existing and give guidelines for strengthening programs where that is needed. By providing quarter by quarter guidelines for both preschool and school-age programs, parents can feel confident that their children will leave Bright Horizons with the skills needed to succeed in school and life.

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